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Specialty Physician Participation in Cancer Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are necessary to evaluate the safety and efficacy of new cancer therapies. However, less than 5% of newly diagnosed adult cancer patients participate in clinical trials. To explore one potential barrier to patientaccrual to such trials—recruitment of patients byphysicians— Klabunde et al. (p. 384 ) surveyed 1533 physicians who cared for colorectal and lung cancer patients. They identified physicians who participated in clinical trials by enrolling or referring patients, the types of trials in which they participated, and factors associated with greater involvement in clinical trials. They found that specific features of the practice environments of these physicians, including higher patient volume and greater time spent with each new patient, were associated with higher clinical trial accrual rates overall. The patterns of these associations were similar for physicians who practiced in environments specifically designed to support physicians’ clinical trials involvement.They conclude that closer examination of nonparticipating physicians in these settings might identify incentives that could be used to increase their willingness to participate in clinical trials.